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What if Walt Disney had produced the Looney Tunes franchise?/Walt Disney Animated Classics/Cinderella
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney and originally released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault, it is the 12th Disney animated feature film. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wilfred Jackson. Songs were written by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman. Songs in the film include "Cinderella", "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "Sing Sweet Nightingale", "The Work Song", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", and "So This is Love". It features the voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, James MacDonald, Luis van Rooten, Don Barclay, Mike Douglas and Lucille Bliss and narrated by Sebastian Cabot. At the time, Walt Disney Productions had suffered from losing connections to the European film markets due to the outbreak of World War II, enduring some box office bombs like Fantasia and Bambi, both of which would later become more successful with several re-releases in theaters and on home video. At the time, however, the studio was over $4 million in debt and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Walt Disney and his animators turned back to feature film production in 1948 after producing a string of package films with the idea of adapting Charles Perrault's Cinderella into a motion picture. It is the first Disney film in which all of Disney's Nine Old Men worked together as directing animators. After two years in production, Cinderella was finally released on February 15, 1950. It became the greatest critical and commercial hit for the studio since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and helped reverse the studio's fortunes. It is considered one of the best American animated films ever made, as selected by the American Film Institute. It received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Music, Original Song for "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo". Decades later, it was followed by a 2016 theatrcal sequel Cinderella: A Twist in Time. The castle is duplicated at Magic Kingdom park in Disney World and with Sleeping Beauty Castle at the center of Disneyland is the basis for one of Walt Disney's logo. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" Plot Cinderella is the much-loved daughter of a widowed aristocrat. He decides to remarry, believing his beloved daughter needs a mother's care. Ultimately, Cinderella's father marries Lady Tremaine, a proud and confident woman with two daughters just Cinderella's age from a previous marriage named Drizella and Anastasia. After Cinderella's father dies, Lady Tremaine reveals herself to be a cold and cruel tyrant who is fully jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty. Lady Tremaine takes over the estate and begins to abuse and mistreat Cinderella, ultimately forcing her to become a scullery maid in her own home, while also squandering off the fortune until there was nearly nothing left. Despite this, Cinderella remains a kind and gentle woman, befriending the animals in the barn and the mice and birds who live around the chateau. For with each dawn, she found new hope that someday her dreams of happiness will soon come true. One morning, Cinderella and the mice found a new mouse in the house who was caught in a mouse trap. She gives him the name Gustavus (or Gus for short) and some new clothes and informs one of the other mice, Jaq, to warn Gus about Lucifer, Lady Tremaine's wicked cat. The two mice spy on Lucifer as Cinderella starts her chores. When Cinderella is giving breakfast to the animals, Lucifer chases Gus and he hides under Anastasia's teacup. Cinderella delivers breakfast to her stepfamily. When Anastasia opens her teacup and finds Gus, she screams to her mother about it right after thinking it was a prank by Cinderella. Lady Tremaine punishes Cinderella with extra chores. At the royal palace, the King and the Grand Duke organize a ball in an effort to find a suitable wife for Prince Charming, considering the fact that the King wants to see grandchildren before his death. Every eligible maiden in the kingdom is requested to attend. Cinderella asks her stepmother if she can attend since she is still part of the family and every maiden is invited. Lady Tremaine agrees, provided if Cinderella finishes her chores and finds a nice dress to wear. With Cinderella too distracted with extra chores, her animal friends, led by Jaq and Gus, fix up a gown that belonged to Cinderella's late mother. They go downstairs and scoop up Drizella's old beads and Anastasia's old sash after they throw them on the floor, escaping with them before Lucifer catches them. The animals finish Cinderella's dress just as the carriage arrives. When Cinderella comes down wearing her new dress, Lady Tremaine compliments the gown, pointing out the beads and sash. Angered by the apparent theft of their discarded items by their stepsister, the stepsisters angrilly rip the gown into rags before snootily leaving for the ball with Lady Tremaine. Heartbroken, Cinderella runs outside to the garden and begins to cry. At the point of giving up her dreams, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother appears and bestows upon Cinderella a new ball gown with a pair of glass slippers. She also transforms a pumpkin into a carriage, the mice into horses, Major the horse into a coachman, and Bruno the dog into a footman. Cinderella departs for the ball after her fairy godmother warns her that the spell will break at the stroke of midnight. At the ball, the Prince rejects every girl until he sees Cinderella. The two fall strongly in love and dance alone throughout the castle grounds. Lady Tremaine thinks there's something familiar about her, but is unable to make the connection before the Grand Duke closes the curtain to give the couple some privacy. As the clock starts to chime midnight. Cinderella flees to her coach and away from the castle, dropping one of her glass slippers by accident. The Duke sends the guards to stop them, but Cinderella and the animals hide from them. After her gown turns back into rags, the mice point out that the other slipper is still on her foot. Back at the castle, the Duke tells the King of the disaster. He also reveals, however, that the Prince will not marry anyone except the owner of the slipper, and sets out to find her. The next morning, the King proclaims that the Grand Duke will visit every house in the kingdom to find the girl whose foot fits the glass slipper so that she can be married to the Prince. When news reaches Cinderella's household, her stepmother and stepsisters prepare for the Duke's arrival. Overhearing this, Cinderella dreamily hums the song played at the ball. Realizing that Cinderella was the girl who danced with the Prince, Lady Tremaine follows Cinderella to her artic room and locks her stepdaughter there. When the Duke arrives, the mice retrieve the key to Cinderella's room from the stepmother's pocket and bring it upstairs, but before they can deliver it, they are ambushed by Lucifer, who traps Gus under a cup. With the help of the other mice, birds, and Bruno, they chase a scarred Lucifer out the window (possibly killing him) and Cinderella is freed. As the Duke prepares to leave after the stepsisters unsuccessfully try on the slipper, Cinderella appears and requests to try it on. Knowing the slipper will fit, Lady Tremaine trips the footman, causing him to drop and shatter the slipper. Cinderella then produces the other glass slipper, much to her stepmother's horror. Delighted at this complete indisputable proof of the maiden's identity, the Duke slides the slipper onto her foot and it fits perfectly. Cinderella and Prince Charming celebrate their wedding and lived happily ever after. Cast *Ilene Woods as Cinderella *Eleanor Audley as Lady Tremaine *Verna Felton as Fairy Godmother *Rhoda Williams as Drizella *Jimmy MacDonald as Jaq and Gus *Luis van Rooten as the King and the Grand Duke *Don Barclay as the Doorman *Lucille Bliss as Anastasia *Mike Douglas as Prince Charming's singing voice *William Phipps as Prince Charming's speaking voice *Marion Darlington provided whistling for the birds *Earl Keen as Bruno an Major *John Woodbury *Lucille Williams as Perla *Mel Blanc as Lucifer *Thurl Ravenscroft, Clint McCauley, June Sullivan, and Helen Seibert voiced various mice *Sebastian Cabot as the Narrator Production Story development Casting Animation Live-action reference Character animation Music Soundtrack Release Critical reaction Box office Home media Awards Sequel Trivia *In the original French version of the story, the slippers are made of fur instead of glass. This was because of a translation error. *Walt Disney said Cinderella was one of his favorite stories because he saw himself in her shoes (pun intended) since he/she worked so hard and got rewarded for his/her work. *The sequence in which Cinderella's rags turn into a magnificent ball gown, animated by Marc Davis, was Walt Disney's favorite piece of animation ever to come out of the studio. Enchanted has a scene that resembles this. *This was the first Disney feature film to be narrated by Sebastian Cabot, who would be the narrator in later Disney films until his death in 1977. *This was the first fully-developed, feature-length film the studio released after wartime cutbacks forced them to release several "package films" (Melody Time (1948), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), et al). The success of the animation department depended greatly on its success *Woods also revealed in an interview that Walt Disney was probably the first person to use double tracked vocals, where the singer records herself singing both the melody and the harmonies. The vocals were then mixed together, creating a seamless effect. **In 2003, she was awarded a Disney Legends award for her voicework on Cinderella. *Although it was often assumed that Lucifer falled to his death from the tower, he is shown as being alive in Cinderella: A Twist in Time. The logic of how he survived is never addressed directly, so fans have come up with their own theories. The most popular: 1) As per one popular bit of folklore (partly based on scientific facts), falling cats have a proportionally improbable ability to fall from extreme heights and land standing without injury, due to specialized muscular reflexes. 2) As per another popular bit of folklore (which has no factual justification whatsoever, but fits suitably into a fairy-tale context), cats have "eight spare lives" so it was Lucifer's feline privilege to be resurrected after his violent death. 3) As per a more recent bit of popular folklore (which largely post-dates this movie but can be applied retroactively), Lucifer was protected from injury by his fat flesh which provided an insulating cushion against any bone breakage when he hit the ground. **Also, decades after, Lucifer later reappeared as the main antagonist in Stuart Little (1992), where he was voiced by Chazz Palminteri. *When Walt had the resources to return to full-length animation in the late 1940s after the war, he was indecisive over whether they should produce Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland first and finally decided to have two animation crews working on each film compete with each other to see not only which would finish first but also which did the best job. *Not only is the name of the Prince never revealed, but he is nowhere in the film mentioned as "Prince Charming". *Walt Disney had not had a huge hit after'' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (though Pinocchio and Dumbo were also huge successes). The production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on his part. At a cost of nearly $3,000,000, Disney insiders claimed that if this movie had failed at the box office, it would have been the end of the Disney studio. The film was a big hit. The profits from its release, with the additional profits from record sales, music publishing, publications and other merchandise gave Disney the cash flow to finance a slate of productions (animated and live-action), establish his own distribution company for his feature films (while his animated shorts remained distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures), enter television production and begin building Disneyland during the decade. *Lucifer was modeled after animator Ward Kimball's cat. Animators were having trouble coming up with a good design for that cat, but once Walt Disney saw Kimball's furry calico, he declared, "There's your Lucifer." *While it could be just a coincidence, it may not be, three of the lady mice in the dress making scene (around when Jaq says "Poor Cinderelly") are in green, pink and blue dresses - not quite the exact same colors as the Three Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty, which would be released 9 years later. Also, Verna Felton voices Fairy Godmothers for both films. In Sleeping Beauty, she is Flora, the red member of the team. *In earlier drafts of the screenplay, the Prince originally played a larger role and had more character development than what he ultimately received in the final version of the film. In one abandoned opening, the Prince was shown hunting a deer, but at the end of the sequence, it was to be revealed that the Prince and the deer were actually friends playing a game. In an abandoned alternate ending, after the Duke discovered Cinderella's identity, she was shown being brought to the castle to be reintroduced to the Prince, who is surprised to learn that Cinderella was actually a modest servant girl instead of the princess he thought she was, but the Prince's feelings for her were too strong to be bothered by this and he embraced her; the Fairy Godmother was to reappear and restore Cinderella's ball gown for the closing shot. Walt Disney himself reportedly cut the alternate ending because he felt it was overlong and did not give the audience its "pay off", but the scene would later be incorporated in the video game Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.